Cut it off

I love technology. From the cutting edge to emerging trend, nothing brings me greater satisfaction than trolling the usual culprits so that I can stuff my brain with useless information about the newest goodies around the bend. After the years of eager anticipation and months of fevered speculation today's announcement of the Ipad was a bit underwhelming to say the least. I have to admit i'm a staunch supporter of Apple though all we own are a few iTouches but I have been juiced for the latest and greatest from Cupertino and well... it's a giant iTouch. I'm sure with all the fan boys out there the iPad will do some brisk business and line some pockets for the VIP's at Apple, but as for me and my household (and by household I mean me because Brynn couldn't care less as to what the newest gadget coming out is) we'll wait for the next big thing.
The Verizon saga has ended with Brynn's dissolution of her relationship with them and a very snarky dealing with the customer rep at the store. On the whole when we went in there they acted very polite, the manager trying to do his job and convince us to stay and promising to talk to the employee who failed to mention that she would be changing our plan and tacking on a nice little $10.00 a month fee for internet that Brynn would never have used. It went all smoothly because we consciously went in with the thought not to be angry at the employees (they just work there) but as we were tying things up the lady who had been helping us left us with a nice little parting shot, a chuckle. A chuckle right after, "Good luck at T-Mobile". Now I do realize that while Verizon offers the best coverage in the state and they are making enough boatloads of dinero that two customers leaving (well one and a player to be named later) doesn't hurt their bottom line but when the employees drink the Kool-Aid and give us crap it makes me regret trying not to involve them in our personal struggle with their bosses. It makes me want to act like a jerk. And that's not something I want to treat others. In any case we are (somewhat) free from their grasp, Brynn is getting an iPhone, jumping on T-Mobile, and will stay at the same number. I hate Verizon and can't wait for these next 19 months to fly by and free me from their oppressive grip... ahhh technology.

Why in the heck would Brynn want to surf the internet on an EnV Touch? So can someone explain to me why without telling us about the REQUIRED monthly fee to pay for internet for a "multimedia" phone did Verizon push on us this big steaming pile of poop. This is the last straw, after talking to no less than three different Verizon representatives we have found out the only way out of this is by returning the phone but on the bright side it looks like at the time of her upgrade Brynn was out of contract and this could in fact drop the service as soon as they roll back the contract. She'll be heading to T-Mobile which at least offers a month to month service which is appealing to a couple of joes who got yanked around. There are companies on my bad list (HP being another notable one along with all the cell phone companies) and there are companies in my good list (AAA, best service ever). Guess which one you just made Verizon.

They are just cracked out!

It's amazing at what the cell phone companies DON'T get it. No matter how cool the phone I DO NOT want to pay for data plan on a phone. It's not really worth the thirty bucks a month (a 30% increase in our plan) to squint down at the screen to check my email. I admit there are other features and apps that are more rewarding in their use of the internet but when a device has wifi built in and I can grab it for free in a lot of places it makes shelling out that much money less attractive by the minute. And it's too bad because there are a number of times (and whole lot more coming this holiday season) that I would have happily forked over the money needed to upgrade a new phone before my contract ends. The world of smartphones and their consumers are changing and the phone companies need to get real with it. I guarantee you that if they would make their plans more attractive (ala T-Mobile is right now with Project Black) that I would have something that told me the time, made phone calls, and played a few games in my pocket right now. And they would have my dough but instead I will reward companies who work for my dollar with my hard earned cash... or save money for school, whatever comes first.